Load carriers, or `roof racks` for vehicles, of the type intimated by way of introduction are known in many different variations. One prior art type of such a load carrier is provided with a fixed support foot which is intended to be placed in the guttering on a vehicle. In order to retain the support foot in the guttering, use is made of a gripping member with a catch-shaped portion which grips in under the guttering as good as straight from beneath.
On such cars as lack the above-mentioned, conventional guttering, this anchorage method will not function and, in order also to provide the possibility in such cases of fixing a load carrier to the vehicle, support portions have been employed in the form of plates with protective coatings of rubber which abut against an edge portion of the upper side of the roof, often at the door openings in the bodywork. Also in this case, the gripping member is catch-shaped and extends into the door opening in order to grasp about the upper edge portion of the bodywork. However, the geometry in the bodywork of modern cars is, because of far-reaching demands for streamlining and reduction of air-resistance, configurated in such a manner that neither will this method of fixedly securing a load carrier provide sufficient dependability. Conditions become particularly troublesome when that surface against which the gripping member abuts displays a marked slope from the side of the vehicle downwardly and inwardly towards the centre of the vehicle. If, in addition, the outer contour of the roof adjacent the door opening makes approximately a right angle with the upper defining surface in the door opening, i.e. that surface on the bodywork against which the gripping member is to abut, it will be readily perceived that just a pull upwards, or at right angles to the abutment surface of the gripping member against the bodywork will have dire consequences.
An additional factor which impedes fixed securement of the load carrier is that, on loading of the load carrier, the rod or strut of the carrier extending transversely across the vehicle roof will be bent downwardly at its central region, so that thereby the feet will `splay out` from one another, whereby the engagement with the edge portions of the vehicle bodywork will be weakened.
Certain modern bodywork types still retain projections which have approximately the same location and function as the guttering on older models of bodywork. However, these projections are placed in behind a fully-covering vehicle door so that the projections are accessible in their entirety only when the door is open but, when the door is closed, are merely accessible through an extremely narrow slit-shaped and upwardly facing opening between the door edge proper and adjacent portions of the bodywork. In bodywork models of this type, it must be possible to place the load carrier with such accurate precision in the narrow slit-shaped opening between the edge of the door and the bodywork that damage to both the bodywork and the door is wholly avoided or eliminated. Furthermore, these precision requirements are, in particular when the load carrier is placed under a load, naturally difficult to achieve in a bodywork model of this type because of the extremely limited space.